It may be reasonable to attend for breast cancer screening with
mammography, but it may also be reasonable not to attend, as
screening has both benefits and harms.
If 2000 women are screened regularly for 10 years, one will benefit
from the screening, as she will avoid dying from breast cancer.
At the same time, 10 healthy women will, as a consequence,
become cancer patients and will be treated unnecessarily. These
women will have either a part of their breast or the whole breast
removed, and they will often receive radiotherapy, and sometimes
chemotherapy.
Furthermore, about 200 healthy women will experience a false
alarm. The psychological strain until one knows whether or not it
was cancer, and even afterwards, can be severe.
Comment Reply
Summary from this site...very interesting!
It may be reasonable to attend for breast cancer screening with
August 2, 2009 - 12:35pmmammography, but it may also be reasonable not to attend, as
screening has both benefits and harms.
If 2000 women are screened regularly for 10 years, one will benefit
from the screening, as she will avoid dying from breast cancer.
At the same time, 10 healthy women will, as a consequence,
become cancer patients and will be treated unnecessarily. These
women will have either a part of their breast or the whole breast
removed, and they will often receive radiotherapy, and sometimes
chemotherapy.
Furthermore, about 200 healthy women will experience a false
alarm. The psychological strain until one knows whether or not it
was cancer, and even afterwards, can be severe.
This Comment
Reply